GREEN MEANS GO
VEEZU LEADS THE WAY WITH £175 MILLION INVESTMENT IN BRAND-NEW FLEET OF HYBRID CARS
Veezu, the UK’s fastest growing taxi and private hire technology platform, has made a £1.75m investment in a brand-new fleet of hybrid cars as part of a broader strategy to reduce its car- bon footprint. The firm, which operates five regional brands across England and Wales – including A2B Radio Cars in Birming- ham and Solihull and Go Carz in Shropshire and Wolverhampton - has added 60 Toyota Corolla Touring all self-charging hybrid electric vehicles to its fleet.
Plus, a further 30 low emission cars are expected to be added to the fleet later this year. The first batch of cars hit the road this month, coinciding with Clean Air Day, the UK’s most extensive air pollution campaign, which was on June 16. The low emission vehicles will be deployed evenly across Veezu’s region-
al brands Amber Cars, A2B Radio Cars, Go Carz, Dragon Taxis and V Cars in Leeds, Midlands, south Wales and the southwest of England. There are currently two Clean Air Zones throughout these operating areas: Bath and Birmingham, with Bris- tol also added to the list later this year. Introduced to improve air quality in these areas, Veezu’s new fleet of hybrid
cars will all meet the minimum emission standards set. As the new vehicles arrive, older cars in Veezu’s fleet will be taken out of ser- vice. Gavin Morris, Lead Director of Veezu’s Drive division, said: “This is an essential investment for us as a company but one we feel very passionately about. “Throughout the areas we are deploy- ing the new fleet to, there are a number of Clean Air Zones, and we are proud to be doing our bit to help these locations meet their air quality targets. “We are always looking at improving our carbon footprint as part of our wider environmental social governance strategy. This significant £1.75m invest- ment will contribute towards that. “Low emission vehicles play an impor- tant part in the private hire industry, and we’re proud to be leading the way.”
UK GOVERNMENT HAS CLOSED THE PLUG-IN CAR GRANT SCHEME TO NEW ORDERS
On Tuesday 14 June, the UK govern- ment closed the plug-in car grant scheme to new orders but says it will put more money into the public charging network and commercial EV grants. The government statement says that “£300 million in grant funding will now be refocused towards extending plug- in grants to boost sales of plug-in taxis, motorcycles, vans and trucks and wheelchair accessible vehicles.” The plug-in car grant scheme had been running since 2011, with the govern- ment claiming it had supported the sale of nearly 500,000 electric cars on our shores. There had been repeated cuts to the amount of money that new EV drivers were able to claim though, with the lat-
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est in December 2021 dropping the fig- ure to £1,500 for anything costing less than £32,000. Mike Coulton, EV Consultant at Volk- swagen Financial Services UK said: “Whilst it should not come as a surprise to see the Government have brought to a close the Electric Vehicle Plug-In Car Grant (PICG), it is nonetheless hugely disappointing that more is not being done to encourage and support lower- income households in the transition to EVs.
“Maintaining or even increasing the PICG for the least expensive EVs to make them more affordable, and encourage manufacturers to produce electric cars at a lower price-point, could have been a strong incentive to help adoption for this sector of the
market. “This in turn would help to remove older and dirtier ICE (internal combus- tion engine) vehicles in the same way that scrappage schemes have success- fully done in the past. “That said, the Government’s focus on further improving public charging, whilst still incentivising adoption in other areas of the vehicle market such as LCVs is to be welcomed and encour- aged. “We would ask that further clarity is urgently provided in key areas, such as BIK rates beyond 2025, and a realign- ment of the AER rates to reflect the costs of charging an EV away from home, for those who cannot make use of a cheaper overnight electricity tariff.”
JULY 2022
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